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Toddlers died in hot car after mother wanted to teach a ‘lesson,’ officials say

June 25, 2017

(DALLAS) — A mother whose two young children were killed after they were locked in a hot car in Weatherford, Texas, last month was arrested after she admitted she left them there to teach a “lesson,” officials said.

The Parker County Sheriff’s office said Cynthia Marie Randolph, 25, told investigators several different variations of what happened to her 16 month-old boy and 2-year-old girl on May 26. She was arrested following a final interview on Friday when she admitted she locked the car doors on her children around 12:15 p.m. after the 2-year-old daughter refused to get out, according to the sheriff’s office.

Randolph said she wanted to teach her daughter a “lesson,” and thought her daughter “could get herself and her brother out of the car when ready,” officials said.

She told investigators she then went into the house to smoke marijuana and went to sleep for two to three hours. When she found the children unresponsive, Randolph originally said she broke a window of the vehicle to save them, but later admitted she did it to make it look like an accident, according to officials.

Both children were pronounced dead just after 4:30 p.m., when temperatures were approximately 96 degrees.

Randolph faces first-degree felony count of injury to a child causing serious bodily injury and was booked into the Parker County jail, according to ABC affiliate WFAA-TV.